A North London team won the Spring 2014 London International Teams Trophy event on Saturday April 5, just beating a team from France on tie-break after both won two team matches out of three, including five game wins for each. The tournament was decided on the result of the Captains’ game between Huang Aja 6d for N London and Pierre Paga 5d for France. Click here for the deciding game record (pictured, right, at move #100).

A handicap division was won by South London, with Central London B as runners-up. Click here for further details in the British Go Association’s report, and here for full results.

In this twice-yearly friendly tournament, teams of three – which ideally (but not necessarily or, in fact, often) have an international dimension – compete for a trophy donated by Kobayashi Yukata. It is organized by the Central London Go Club (CLGC) and this season was held at the Melton Mowbray pub in the ancient London street of Holborn(left). The pub is a go hub for London now, the permanent home of the London City Go Club (Fridays, 6p – 11p) and currently also housing the CLGC (Saturdays, noon – 11p).

Click here for a photo album of the event from the Nippon Club’s Tanaka Kiyohiko.

UK: Andrew Kay 4d led the Birmingham on March 29. Behind him were Alex Kent 3d in second and Alistair Wall 2d in third. Serbia: Also on March 29, the 3rd Memorial Milos Vucicevic finished in Kragujevac with Zoran Jankovic 4d in first, Dragan Dubakovic 3d in second, Mihailo Jacimovic 1k in third. Germany: Bernd Radmacher 4d (left) bested Jonas Welticke 5d at the 4th Recklinghaeuser Guzumi in Recklinghausen on March 30 while Martin Ruzicka 2d came in third.– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

The CEGO Online Training for European professional students has just launched. The online training is part of the Pre Pro League, part of the European Go Federation’s (EGF) new contract with the CEGO Chinese investor group to establish a European professional system (European Go Federation Inks Deal With Chinese to Promote Go in Europe 7/5/2013 EJ). “This is another part of the EGF-CEGO cooperation focused on developing European professional go players,” says EGF president Martin Stiassny. “I wish all the players great games with a lot of fun and success.”

The online training is primarily for students who have been studying in Bejing for the last six months (read more about it on Benjamin Teuber’s blog), but to provide some training access for other players who will participate in the European Pro Qualification starting in Strasbourg in May the number of CEGO Online Training participants was increased to 16.

An initial round was played between eight players to figure out the league division and now five series will be played with an A and B league with 6 players each. A League players include Zhao Baolong (teacher), Pavol Lisy, Ali Jabarin, Ilya Shikshin, Cornel Burzo and Andrij Kravets. In the B League are Dusan Mitic, Fredrik Blomback, Viktor Lin, Benjamin Teuber, Lukas Krämer and Zeno van Ditzhuijzen. Li Ting is the other teacher.

Follow the action in the “Euro Dream Team” room on KGS, where you’ll find nearly daily games (20:00 GMT+2 starting) top games, through June 20. Click here for complete details, including full player roster and bios.

The recent European Youth Go Championship (EYGC) and British Go Congress held in Bognor Regis, England saw Japanese professionals Minematsu Masaki 6p and Kobayashi Chizu 5p visiting the UK under the auspices of the Nihon Ki-in. As previously reported (Podpera Takes Top Prize at European Youth Go Championships, 3/9 EJ), they gave teaching sessions and reviewed games throughout the long weekend, finishing off on Monday March 4 with a full teaching day for adults as the European youth battled out the final rounds.

Additionally they both paid a visit on Thursday February 27, the evening before the start of the EYGC, to the Oxford City Go Club where Harry Fearnley had assembled 13 players from 20 kyu to 5 dan. They initially divided into two teams to play one against the other, each member of a team taking two consecutive turns before handing the baton to the next, and the pros used the moves in this game to make teaching points. After that, each pro took on 6 participants in a simul (right). Click here for Harry Fearnley’s full report of the Oxford visit, including more photos and the record of Fearnley’s game against Minematsu.

After the EYGC, Kobayashi alone went on to visit two more UK clubs: North London Go Club in Hampstead on Tuesday March 4 and Edinburgh University Thursday March 6.

I caught up with her at the North London venue, where 11 attended, from beginner to 6d. Club Secretary Michael Webster was our host. Proceedings started with a similar exercise to that at Oxford, but with only about eight present initially, we formed one team to play by turn –two moves each — against the pro while she made observations about our moves (left). This gave time for a couple of latecomers to find the Parish Church tucked away in the back streets of Hampstead, and we all then went on to look at some joseki, before most of us took on Kobayashi individually in a simul. During the simul she helpfully suggested better moves and at close of play made general suggestions about how I could play more effectively.

Between times I got the chance to ask Kobayashi her impressions of UK go and the EYGC in particular. She has long had a mission to spread the game and Japanese go culture in the western world, especially Europe, and particularly focusing on the young. In 2007 she lived in Vienna and has also spent time in Berlin and Paris, where she was heading after the UK tour. In 2008 she was appointed Special Advisor for Cultural Exchange for the Japanese Government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs and later also became a director of the Nihon Ki-in. Talking about her work, she likened the promotion of go culture to the cultivation of a garden. She mentioned points of go etiquette during the evening too, such as opening an even game as black with a play to the top right corner and not rattling the stones in the bowl whilst thinking. She told me she saw much promise amongst the young players at the EYGC – some of whom, such as new Under-20 European Champion Lukas Podpera, she had already met – but emphasised that those aspiring especially to pro status should take professional go tuition at the earliest age possible. She related how her father, a strong amateur, had applied for insei at age 19 but was told, “too late.” For that reason he sent his children to learn young, with Kobayashi Chizu herself starting at age 6. She studied under Kitani Minoru and she and two of her brothers, Satoru and Kenji all became professionals. Of Oscar Vazquez 2d, Under-12 European Champion, she said he was “very calm” and had a reputation for “never making mistakes”.

The next day, Kobayashi took the long train ride north to Edinburgh in Scotland, where she appeared on the evening of Thursday March 7 at the Appleton Tower of the University. Boris Mitrovic, a postgraduate research student at the University’s School of Informatics and a challenger for the British Go Championship last year, hosted. There 15 sat around a single board (right), starting off with the same two-moves-each against Kobayashi exercise as at N. London, as she commented with instructive criticism. They then solved a few tsumego together, after which three or four pairs of the attendees each played the first few moves of games which became the subject of the pro’s comments. At the end of the evening – and the tour – Kobayashi was taken for a meal at the Favorit restaurant.

Report by Tony Collman, British correspondent for the E-Journal. Photos: Minematsu considers his next move against Harry Fearnley, by Oxford club member; Francisco Divers contemplates the position as Michael Webster looks on, while Kobayashi smiles at a comment by another onlooker, by Tony Collman; Katherine Power makes one of two consecutive moves for Kobayashi’s consideration at Edinburgh University, by Boris Mitrovic.

The 6th Strasbourg International Tournament will take place May 24 and 25 at the Collège Saint-Etienne. In addition to the main tournament, players may enjoy asian game demonstrations and an all-you-can-eat dinner on Saturday. There will be cash prizes for the top players and the top player with three wins. Registration is free for players below 10kyu and younger than age 18. The registration fee for all other players is 15 EU. For more information about the tournament including rules and full schedule, visit the official 6th Strasbourg International website.—Annalia Linnan; for complete listings, check out the European Tournament Calendar

One of the most beautiful and romantic UK tournament locations must surely be the Isle of Skye in Scotland’s Western Highlands, which this weekend, March 15-16, hosts the 3rd edition of its two-yearly tournament (alternating with the two-yearly Isle of Man Go Week). Despite its remoteness from most of the UK, 30 have already registered including Britain’s strongest native player, Matthew Macfadyen 6d, who rarely competes these days but who also entered – and won – the first two Skye tournaments.

Although the island’s economy was formerly dominated by crofting, these days tourism is its key money-spinner. Tournament organizer Carel Goodheir tells us that, for reasons which are not entirely clear, about 6,000 Chinese visit every year now, which is approximately twice the population of the largest settlement, Portree, where the tourney is held. So far none of them have entered but he hopes to find a way to bring the tourney to their attention in the future.

Forty years ago, when Goodheir first moved to the island, he estimates about 80% of the inhabitants spoke the Scottish Gaelic as their main language, but nowadays less than 40% can speak it. Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, a public higher education college in Sleat, Skye, is the world’s only educational establishment using Scottish Gaelic as the medium of instruction. If you’ve never heard the language – which in 2000AD also had about 1600 speakers in the US, and currently has over 2300 in Canada – check out this short (2′ 15″) BBC Alba (Gaelic service) TV report on the 1st Skye tourney in 2010, featuring Neil Mitchison explaining the game in Gaelic, and believed to be the only BBC coverage to date of a go tournament. The clip opens with co-organizer John Macdonald at the board playing Aideen O’Malley, a director of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

UK: The Trigantius tournament finished in Cambridge on March 9 with Jon Diamond 4d in first, William Brooks 3d in second, and Toby Manning 3d in third. Turkey: Hulya Colak 4k lead the 2014 Turkish Women’s Championship in Ankara on March 8. Behind her were Sebnem Gurbuzel 4k in second and Evren Bicakci 5k in third. (Photo: Gozde Taskin 5k, place 7 of 19.) Serbia: Also on March 8, Zoran Jankovic 4d dominated the Radnicki Club Tournament in Kragujevac while Mihailo Jacimovic 1k came in second and Dragan Stojadinovic 8k placed third.– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

Lukas Podpera 6d (left) of the Czech Republic won the Under-20 division of the 19th European Youth Go Championship (EYGC) held in Bognor Regis, England Feb 28 – Mar 3, thereby securing himself a place in the GLOBIS Cup World Youth Go Championship to be held in Japan on 8 – 11 May 2014 (see Nihon Ki-in Announces New Under-20 World Tourney, EJ 11/30). Jonas Welticke 4d of Germany was runner-up and Frenchman Tanguy LeCalve 5d took third place. In the Under-16s, the top three places went to Alexandru-Petre Pitrop 2d of Romania and Russians Grigorij Fiorin 4d and Viacheslav Kaymin 3d, in that order, and the Under-12 category was won by the only dan player in his age group, Spaniard Oscar Vazquez 2d, with Denis Dobranis 2k of Romania runner-up. 89 took part in all. Click here for full results. Click here also for the results of the pair-go and doubles, held on the Sunday evening, March 2.

The events were organised on behalf of the British Go Association (BGA) by – mainly – Toby Manning, Tony Atkins and Sue Paterson, and ran alongside the British Go Congress (see Double Victory for Cornel Burzo at British Go Congress, 3/3 EJ) at the Butlins Holiday Park, where competitors had full access to the many facilities and entertainments available for youngsters there. Japanese professionals Minematsu Masaki 6P and Kobayashi Chizu 5P (right) were in residence throughout, teaching and reviewing games. Kobayashi told the EJ she was impressed by the talent of the young Europeans, but stressed that to reach the highest levels it will be important for them to get good professional tuition, the earlier the better.

Report by Tony Collman, British correspondent for the E-Journal. Photos courtesy of the British Go Association: Lukas Podpera proudly displays his trophy and national flag alongside Kobayashi Chizu; pro guests Minematsu Masaki 6P (left of photo) and Kobayashi Chizu 5p take time out by the sea.

At the British Go Congress in Bognor Regis, England, Cornel Burzo 6d (right) of Baia Mare, Romania first won the British Lightning on Friday February 28, then followed it up with a sweep of the six-round British Open, March 1-2. In all, 61 players took part in the Open, including nearly 25% from mainland Europe and beyond. Prizes were awarded in eight separate divisions based on grade, and the runner-up in the first division, Robert Rehm 5d of the Netherlands, also took first prize in the second division, with Bei Ge 5d (UK ) runner-up. Click here for the British Go Association’s (BGA) report giving full list of divisional prize-winners and here for full tournament results. The Stacey Grand Prix, which bestows the Terry Stacey Memorial Trophy on the player with most wins above the McMahon bar in tournaments since the previous Congress, went this year to Toby Manning 2d.

The Congress also took in the BGA’s Annual General Meeting on the evening of Saturday March 1 and rounded off on Monday March 2 with a teaching day featuring Japanese Nihon Ki-in professionals Minematsu Masaki and Kobayashi Chizu, who have also been teaching and reviewing throughout the weekend.

Meanwhile the European Youth Go Congress, running in parallel at the same venue with eighty-nine players in three age divisions, also finished March 2. The tournament continued at presstime and will be reported soon, but the impatient may click here for full results.

Report by Tony Collman, British correspondent for the E-Journal; photo courtesy of European Go Congress 2014 website.Update (3/8): there was no communal meal on March 1, as previously reported.